Children's ability to distinguish between imagined and performed actions: implications for eye-witness testimony

Past findings indicate that young children have, in comparison to older children and adults, more difficulties remembering the source of information and distinguishing between real and imagined events (Ceci & Bruck, 1993; Foley & Ratner, 1998). The current study extended these findings by asking 4-6-year-olds, 9-year-olds and adults to remember whether an action had been performed or imagined by themselves or by the experimenter during the learning phase. Two types of actions were included: 1. interactive touch (eg. the actor touched the other person on the nose), 2. interactive gesture (eg. the actor waved 'good bye' to the other person). This condition was included to make results relevant to court cases of alleged abuse in which children are often asked to remember whether the accused touched them and where. Results indicated that the 4-6-year-olds were more likely than the other to groups to confuse whether they or the experimenter had performed the action and whether the action had actually happened or was merely imagined. There were no differences for type of action. These results suggest that preschool children may make unreliable witnesses when questioned about the source, reality and type of previous actions